Wig firm calls on Tech for help

If you want to reach the 20-something demographic, go to the target audience.

That’s why Susan Vaters, owner of Love Your Dü, has requested the assistance of a Texas Tech class to expand her product to a younger market.

Vaters and her husband, David, met with groups of students from the consumer research class outside the new Rawls College of Business Administration building Thursday to tell them about Love Your Dü, a company selling synthetic hair wigs.

“We decided to start a company because my hair was breaking off,” Vaters told the students, “I was just going through a little stress period and my hair was breaking off just a little bit, and I asked my husband, ‘Can I go get a wig?’ ”

Love Your Dü, based in Tennessee, provides a selection of synthetic wigs as interchangeable as shoes or a purse, Vaters.

She said she decided to start the company because she received so many compliments after she began wearing wigs — that and she could improve on the lackluster presentation of most wig boxes.

The target demographic is ages 21 to 29, said Vaters’ husband.

“For instance, one of our selling points is, you can look 10 years younger without going through surgery,” he said. “Well, that doesn’t work with a 21-year-old or 29-year-old.”

The class assignment: Find the buzz and use social media to get the product from university to university.

Shanon Rinaldo, professor of the consumer research class at Tech, said this is the first time the college has done a program of this magnitude.

“They are providing us with product, they’re providing us with the website, and everything that the students need to do the marketing that they need to do,” Rinaldo said.

The professor said the students are expected to use social media to get people to visit the company’s website.

“They can use YouTube, they can use Twitter, they can use Facebook,” Rinaldo said. “They can use any of the social media platforms to drive the traffic.”

According to Rinaldo, the winning team will get a prize from the Vaters, but every student will learn how to successfully use consumer research.

“The goal is for them to learn how to do consumer research,” Rinaldo said, “and to test out social media strategies and to see what works and what doesn’t work.”